This week’s highlights

  • Hearing from JHR gender and team leaders Judie Kaberia, Prince Murhula and Moro Siaka Diallo this International Development Week
  • #HoldTheLine coalition sounds alarm over escalating legal harassment of Maria Ressa
  • #BlackHistoryMonth: Celebrating and Learning from Black Leadership with the Future for Good
  • World Radio Day – February 13 2021
  • Indigenous Journalists! Submissions Call for 2nd Annual Award for Outstanding Work by an Indigenous Youth Reporter

JHR gender and team leaders Judie Kaberia, Prince Murhula and Moro Siaka Diallo on International Development Week 2021

 
Tuesday and Wednesday of International Development Week 2021 saw JHR Gender and Team Leaders Judie Kaberia, Prince Murhula and Moro Siaka Diallo host webinars on the impact of JHR’s work in Kenya, Mali and DRC
DRC and Mali Team Leaders Prince Murhula and Moro Siaka Diallo featured in a webinar with Global Affairs Canada on Tuesday, discussing the effect of COVID-19 on journalists and the challenges journalists, in particular female journalists, face. In Mali, JHR worked to ensure health information about COVID-19 was made accessible to all, including the hearing impaired, via sign language interpretation videos. Click here to watch the video.
“Many journalists in #DRC who were presenting the news and had to finish their work after 20h00 were arrested during the first lockdown in March 2020. They had to choose between informing the people or staying at home in order to avoid being harassed.”
On Wednesday, JHR Gender Media Trainer Judie Kaberia featured in a special presentation on the impact of COVID-19 on women & girls in Kenya. In recent months Judie Kaberia, Sammy Muraya and the Voices for Women and Girls’ Rights team have led workshops on human rights reporting, training that prioritizes women’s voices while also highlighting the role of men in supporting gender rights, and explored sexual harassment issues in newsrooms.
 
Click here to see Judie speaking about the role of men in the elimination of FGM.

#HoldTheLine coalition sounds alarm over escalating legal harassment of Maria Ressa

Rachel Pulfer, JHR Executive Director interviewing Maria Ressa, 2019. Photo Credit: JHR
JHR is joining the #HoldTheLine coalition of more than 80 groups led by the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), the International Center for Journalists (ICFJ), and Reporters Without Borders (RSF), to stand with Maria Ressa and defend independent journalism in the Philippines.
Ahead of another cluster of court proceedings against Rappler founder and CEO Maria Ressa, the #HoldTheLine coalition calls for an end to the escalating and incessant campaign of legal harassment against her in the Philippines.
In the past weeks Maria Ressa has faced a new cluster of hearings and she has been subjected to 10 arrest warrants in the past two years. “The coalition calls for the charges against Maria Ressa and fellow journalists to be dropped and this unrelenting pressure brought to an end once and for all”, said the steering committee.

#BlackHistoryMonth: Celebrating and Learning from Black Leadership with the Future for Good

Photo Credit: Future of Good  
How might impact-oriented entrepreneurs, professionals, and leaders actively build anti-racist organizations they want to see?
On February 25, 2021, during Black History Month, Future of Good is hosting hundreds of impact-oriented leaders from across the country in a half day event to celebrate the achievements of Black leaders in social impact and build an anti-racist social impact sector.
Summer 2020 saw a new and uniquely powerful uprising of the Black Lives Matter movement globally, and it reached Canada, where Black communities are underfunded, underserved, and underrepresented in social impact, entrepreneurship, and leadership positions. A recent study found that Black-led enterprises and Black-serving non-profits receive a miniscule amount of Canadian investment and philanthropic dollars.
What will it take to build anti-racist organizations, beyond diversity and representation? How can we all remove barriers to leadership positions and funding to accelerate Black leadership, as well as, reimagine our organizations in order to not further contribute to a broken system?
Sign up for the event here.

JHR Trains Female Journalists in Kenya on Addressing Sexual Harassment in the Newsroom

Photo Credit: JHR Kenya

On February 4th, 2021 Journalists for Human Rights held a two-day workshop for female Journalists in Nairobi, Kenya.The workshop sought to train female journalists on strategies for addresing sexual harassment in the newsroom, and was attended by 12 female journalits from different media institutions in Kenya.
JHR also sought to create a safe space for female journalists to share their experiences with sexual harassment in the newsroom and on the field by providing the service of a psycotherapist during the training; this allowed participants to open up and share troubling testimonies of their experience with sexual harassment in the newsroom and in the field.
During the workshop, participants identified impunity, poor leadership, and a lack of gender-inclusive policies in the newsroom as contributing factors to the issue of sexual harassment. Vivian Wandera, a participant and reporter from The Standard Media Group had this to say “What I’ve taken from this training the last two days is that women in the media experience a lot of sexual harassment and sexual abuse. And the biggest problem has been that the perpetrators of these things get the chance to come back to the media houses and work with these women that they have violated every other time. We need to come up with ways to blacklist these people and protect women.”
The all-female paricipants recommended JHR  engage news editors and industry leaders on the issue of sexual harassment. Based on the lessons learned from the female reporters and as a follow-up to their recommendations, JHR, in collaboration with the Kenya Guild of Editors, will be hosting a training workshop for 30 news editors and news bureau chiefs across Kenya. The goal of the workshop will be to engage them on the issue of sexual harassment and to train them in progressive and efficient management strategies which include developing  and enforcing gender inclusive policies in their newsroom.

Celebrating World Radio Day – February 13

Photo Credit: JHR South Sudan   
 
This World Radio Day 2021 we share a success story from 2020 as part of JHR’s work in South Sudan. In June, Eye Radio Juba aired the 4th episode of JHR’s special radio program on coronavirus. The discussion mainly tackled the importance of mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic, dealing with reactions such as psychological stress and how to support others, how to overcome stigma and discrimination related to mental health, and what people can do individually to support mental wellbeing.

Submissions Call for 2nd Annual Award for Outstanding Work by an Indigenous Youth Reporter

Journalists for Human Rights (JHR) is pleased to announce the call for submissions to the 2nd Annual Award for Outstanding Work by an Indigenous Youth Reporter. The award is supported by the RBC Foundation as part of RBC Future Launch, the bank’s 10-year, $500-million commitment to preparing Canadian youth for the jobs of tomorrow.

To apply, please submit an application to [email protected] by Sunday, February 28, 2021, with ‘Indigenous Youth Reporter Award’ in the subject line. Read full details here.

 

 Land Acknowledgement

We wish to acknowledge the land on which the Journalists for Human Rights’ head office operates and recognize the longstanding relationships Indigenous nations have with these territories. For thousands of years it has been the traditional land of the Huron-Wendat, the Seneca, and most recently, the Mississaugas of the Credit River. Tkaronto (Toronto) is in the Dish with One Spoon Territory and is home to Indigenous peoples from many nations across Turtle Island who continue to care for this land today. 
To read more on JHR’s land acknowledgement, click here.